Retirement & Pension Planning Services Ltd was a financial advice firm based in Barnsley.

It is currently in liquidation and was declared in default by the FCSC in October 2021.

In 2018 Retirement & Pension Planning Services Ltd were named as one of ten advice firms who voluntarily agreed to drop their pension transfer permissions following the fallout of the British Steel Pension Scheme saga.

British Steel Pension Scheme Claims

British Steel Pension Scheme members were faced with a decision about what to do with their pensions following a restructure of the scheme. This left many vulnerable to unsuitable pension transfer advice.

Transferring from a defined benefit pension scheme like BSPS into a private pension plan or SIPP meant a loss of valuable and irreplaceable benefits.

Transfers of this nature are generally only suitable in certain circumstances and a lot of pension mis-selling has occurred due to unsuitable transfer advice.

Many former BSPS members are now claiming compensation for mis-selling.

FCA Fine Retirement & Pension Planning Services Ltd

In August 2021 the FCA published a notice that they had provisionally fined Geoffrey Edward Armin of Retirement and Pension Planning Services £1.2m.

In the regulators’ notice, Mr Armin was described as ‘seriously incompetent’ for advising 422 customers on the transfer of their safeguarded pension benefits from a Defined Benefit Pension Scheme into an alternative pension arrangement (personal pension).

This included 183 members of the BSPS, 174 of whom transferred out of the scheme following Mr Armin’s Personal Recommendation.

The notice also said “Mr Armin failed to obtain information that was necessary to assessing whether a Pension Transfer was suitable for a customer. In addition, he largely disregarded vital information about customers which was necessary to assess whether it was suitable for them to transfer their pension…”

Mr Armin is planning to appeal against the decision to the Upper Tribunal.

Can I make a claim against Retirement and Pension Planning Services?

If you received pension advice from Retirement and Pension Planning Services and that advice is proven to be unsuitable then you may be able to make a claim for compensation.

Want to know more about making a claim?

If you are concerned about the advice you received from Retirement and Pension Planning Services and want to check if you may have been mis-sold – we offer a free initial consultation.

Whilst each case is individual, as pension mis-selling specialists we know to look for certain signs that in our experience indicate that mis-selling may have happened.

Our assessment is free and there’s absolutely no obligation to use our service if you have case.

See what our clients have to say about our service on Trustpilot.